today's mass
Gloria had a long yoga teacher training class, today, so we went to the 07:30 Mass. There were fewer screaming kids than at most 10:30 masses, but the two who were there really made up for the difference. The Kyrie and Gloria were recited, which was nice, but they weren’t sung. Neither, in fact, was the Psalm, which I thought was a loss. Maybe the 9:00 mass will be a compromise: a sung Kyrie and Gloria and Psalm, but a few more babies.
The real thing that turned me off, though, was the homily. Father Orsulak is apparently out of town, and one of the missionaries from Sacred Heart (if I recall correctly) was the celebrant. His homily should have been on 1 Peter 1:17-21 or Luke 24:13-35. Instead, he sort of mentioned one of them – lightly enough that I don’t recall which – and then started some sort of bitter complaint about … well, I’m not sure about what.
He started off by saying that it seems impressive to see all these people flocking to the Vatican to see the Pope, and that they seem so moved and involved, but that “I don’t buy it!” I thought this was actually going to be an interesting start. I thought he might talk about the problems in reducing the status of the Pope to “a very good man.” Instead, he moved on into, “you know, if you don’t count the millions of Poles, there weren’t all that many pilgrims” and “the Church in Europe is falling apart” and “the German missionaries I know weren’t looking forward to going back home to empty pews.” He talked about how the real church is always persecuted, and how if you go to practise your faith by standing in a group and saying the rosary (at, he did not need to clearly state, an anti-abortion protest), people will say horrible things to you and spit on you.
It’s not that I mind statements about the church being in a bad state, or the claim that we will be persecuted. It’s just that he didn’t seem to go anywhere. It left a biter taste in my mouth, and I had to really remind myself that whether or not I liked the guy’s homily, I should really get up and take communion.
I hope Father Mongiello is up next week!